Herz
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Although ethics committees are well established in the medical sciences for human clinical trials, animal research and scientific integrity, the development of clinical ethics in German hospitals started much later during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Clinical ethics consultation should be pragmatic and problem-centered and can be defined as an ethically qualified and informed conflict management within a given legal framework to deal with and resolve value-driven, normative problems in the care of patients. Clinical ethics consultations enable shared clinical decision-making of all parties (e.g. clinicians, patients, family and surrogates) involved in a particular patient's care. ⋯ Most importantly, regular and non-authoritative participation of the ethicist in normal ward rounds allows continuous ethical education of the staff within the everyday clinical routine. By facilitating clinical ethical decision-making, the ethicist seeks to empower physicians and medical staff to deal appropriately with ethical problems by themselves. Because of this proactive approach, the ethics liaison service can make a significant contribution to preventative ethics in reducing the number of emerging ethical problems to the satisfaction of all parties involved.
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Syncope accounts for approximately 1 % of visits to emergency departments. The first diagnostic step is to rule out nonsyncopal conditions as a cause of the transient loss of consciousness. Next, the basic clinical evaluation should identify patients at high risk for potentially life-threatening events. ⋯ In low-risk patients, this should preferably be done in an outpatient setting. To date, there is no consensus on a structured algorithm for the evaluation of patients with syncope. Therefore, it seems beneficial to formulate an algorithm based on the current guidelines for the management of syncope for use in the clinical setting.
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Comparative Study
[Percutaneous coronary intervention versus bypass surgery in patients with diabetes and multivessel coronary disease. Coronary revascularization after FREEDOM].
Is coronary revascularization required in a patient with chronic stable coronary artery disease or can optimized medical therapy (OMT) alone be a sufficient alternative? This question has been controversially discussed for non-diabetics as well as for diabetics since the COURAGE and BARI 2D trials. According to our present knowledge, a patient will benefit from coronary revascularization only when either a non-invasive test method, such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET) myocardial scintigraphy, stress echocardiography or stress nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, can detect relevant, objective evidence of ischemia >10% of the left ventricular myocardium or when a pathological fractional flow reserve (FFR) <0.80 can be measured in an invasive procedure for an angiographically detectable coronary stenosis. If similar relevant ischemia can be non-invasively or invasively objectified in a patient with chronic stable multivessel coronary artery disease, the often controversially discussed question arises particularly in diabetics whether a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with implantation of drug-eluting stents or coronary artery bypass surgery should be favored. ⋯ Thus, in the new ESC guidelines on diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular diseases developed with the EASD of the European Society of Cardiology and published in 2013, coronary bypass surgery has a class I, level of evidence A recommendation for patients with diabetes mellitus, chronic stable multivessel coronary disease and a synergy between PCI with taxus and cardiac surgery (SYNTAX) score >22. The decision for or against a PCI/stent implantation or coronary bypass surgery in a diabetic patient with chronic stable multivessel coronary artery disease should therefore be made with the patient only after a detailed informed consent discussion and comprehensive explanation of both treatment options. In controversial cases, particularly with an equivocal SYNTAX score around 22, relevant comorbidities or anticipated method-specific complications, a one-stage ad hoc intervention during the diagnostic coronary angiography should be rejected in favor of a two-stage procedure with prior discussion of both treatment options in the heart team comprising noninvasive cardiologists, interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons.
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For several decades vitamin K antagonists (VKA) were the standard for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. Because of inconvenience associated with their use (frequently VKA levels cannot be consistently maintained within the therapeutic range, e.g. due to food and drug interactions, which necessitates regular control of international normalized ratios) alternative compounds have recently been developed, the direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) dabigatran (a direct antithrombin) as well as rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban (direct factor Xa inhibitors). ⋯ Moreover, DOACs do not only show a similar or even better efficacy, but also a more attractive safety profile in terms of similar or less major bleeding complications, where all DOACs significantly reduce the rate of intracranial bleeding when compared to VKAs. This review summarizes the pharmacological characteristics and clinical study results of DOACs that have been tested in phase 3 trials.
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Noninvasive ventilation is becoming increasingly important in the treatment of acute and chronic respiratory failure. However, noninvasive ventilation not only influences respiratory failure but also cardiac (dys-)function. ⋯ This review covers the (patho-)physiological causes of hypoxic and hypercapnic respiratory insufficiency and its treatment with noninvasive ventilation. A special focus on acute and chronic effects on cardiac function will be addressed.